What makes the world's most expensive cheese, costing nearly 800 million VND?

A blue cheese from northern Spain recently broke the record for the world's most expensive cheese when it was auctioned in the town of Las Arenas de Cabrales in Asturias, Spain, NDTV reported.

A 2.2kg piece of Cabrales blue cheese was sold for 30,000 euros.

Previously, the cheese made at a Los Puertos cheese factory in Poo de Cabrales was chosen by the jury as the best cheese among the 15 producers that entered the competition.

"We know we have a good cheese, but winning is very difficult," Guillermo Pendas, the boss of a cheese factory, told Spain's state news agency EFE.

Rosa Vada, owner of Los Puertos factory and also Guillermo Pendas' mother, said the cheese was stored for at least eight months in a cave at an altitude of 1,400 meters with a temperature of about 7 degrees Celsius.

The cheese was sold to Iván Suárez, owner of the El Llagar de Colloto restaurant in Asturias.

Cabrales cheeses are aged in limestone caves at an altitude of 1,400 meters.

Iván Suárez has been outbidding everyone for the best Cabrales cheeses in recent years. In 2018, the restaurateur paid 14,300 euros for the winning cheese, and a year later, he paid 20,500 euros for the best cheese. At the end of August, Iván Suárez once again paid an insane amount for a Cabrales blue cheese, setting a new record.

Cabrales cheese is "a semi-hard, very rich-flavored blue cheese" handcrafted by farmers in Asturias, Spain.

People used horses to carry cheese up to the limestone cave.

This cheese is typically made from raw cow's milk, which can be mixed with goat or sheep's milk. It is then aged for eight to 10 months in natural limestone caves around the Picos de Europa National Park. And the climate here (including temperature and humidity) creates the perfect conditions for a strain of penicillium fungus to grow. It penetrates the center of the cheese wheel as it ages, creating its characteristic blue veins and a pungent flavor that not everyone can tolerate.

This is also one of the most foul-smelling blue cheeses in the world, but it has the most nutritional value and is the most expensive, and is recognized for its value worldwide.

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